Archive for August 11th, 2008
Beijing Olympic 2008 opening ceremony giant firework footprints ‘faked’
As the ceremony got under way with a dramatic, drummed countdown, viewers watching at home and on giant screens inside the Bird’s Nest National Stadium watched as a series of giant footprints outlined in fireworks processed gloriously above the city from Tiananmen Square.
What they did not realise was that what they were watching was in fact computer graphics, meticulously created over a period of months and inserted into the coverage electronically at exactly the right moment.
The fireworks were there for real, outside the stadium. But those responsible for filming the extravaganza decided in advance it would be impossible to capture all 29 footprints from the air.
As a result, only the last, visible from the camera stands inside the Bird’s Nest was captured on film.
The trick was revealed in a local Chinese newspaper, the Beijing Times, at the weekend.
Gao Xiaolong, head of the visual effects team for the ceremony, said it had taken almost a year to create the 55-second sequence. Meticulous efforts were made to ensure the sequence was as unnoticeable as possible: they sought advice from the Beijing meteorological office as to how to recreate the hazy effects of Beijing’s smog at night, and inserted a slight camera shake effect to simulate the idea that it was filmed from a helicopter.
Crazy Amount of Traffic This Morning
A foreign website (http://meneame.net)Â linked to BON today and I’m getting all kinds of crazy traffic which causing the site to crash from time to time.)
Astronomy Picture of the Day – The Crown of the Sun
During a total solar eclipse, the Sun’s extensive outer atmosphere, or corona, is an inspirational sight. The subtle shades and shimmering features of the corona that engage the eye span a brightness range of over 10,000 to 1, making them notoriously difficult to capture in a single picture. But this composite of 28 digital images ranging in exposure time from 1/1000 to 2 seconds comes close to revealing the crown of the Sun in all its glory. The telescopic views were recorded near Kochenevo, Russia during the August 1 total solar eclipse and also show solar prominences extending just beyond the edge of the eclipsed sun. Remarkably, features on the dark near side of the New Moon can also be made out, illuminated by sunlight reflected from a Full Earth.
Wordle
Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds†from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.
Here’s an example using U2’s “One.”
Elvis’ Boyhood Church Re-Opens
The simple wood chapel 110 miles southeast of Memphis, Tenn., is no Crystal Cathedral. But the East Tupelo First Assembly of God building had a greater effect on 20th-century music than any of America’s gilded mega churches.
Inside its walls, Elvis Presley discovered God and gospel music and learning to strum a guitar and sing.
Closed to the public for more than 50 years, the building was restored this year by the Elvis Presley Memorial Foundation. Today, after a brief ceremony and prayer, the historic Pentecostal church will again open its doors to the world.
Update:Â Here’s an updated article.
